Down in Houston the other week a woman slapped a police horse and went to jail. Never mess with a policeman’s horse.

She was lucky just to go to jail. Had the officer been Wyatt Earp or one of his brothers she could have been dead before she hit the ground. Legend has it the Earp boys were fast with a six-shooter, especially to folks that did ’em wrong.

The Houston Chronicle reported Diane Harvey, 48, was inebriated and sitting next to a large cup of beer when a mounted officer on patrol told her to pour out the beer.

Well, the plot thickens as the story proceeds. This under-the-influence-lady lifted her cup to her lips and began to drain it. The officer had no choice but to tell the lady she was under arrest for public intoxication. He also did not like her attitude of not doing as he said. Pour it out! Not pour it down!

No one likes to hear they are being arrested, so she became angry. As she began to walk away, the officer pulled his horse around to block her way. (This guy is no Earp for sure — a real kind Texas officer of the law.)

With the horse right in her path she did what any sensible drunk would do — she slapped the horse right on the kisser.

The lesson we all need to learn here is don’t do something until you are sure you are within the law. Ignorance is just plain not an excuse, especially when slapping a horse in downtown Houston, Texas.

Ignorance in general has the characteristic of blindness, delusion or simply unknowing. With all the books, schools, Internet, television and bobbing heads there is no excuse for even being ignorant at all. Ignorance is manifested as the absence of right view (my view), and a deep mental darkness of everyone else’s.

According to legal. Issues. com: The idea that ignorance of the law is no excuse is in the doctrine of “scienter.” In general, an individual can be guilty of a criminal act only if he acts with a criminal intent, or scienter, to accomplish a criminal purpose. Under most statutes, to win a conviction, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted “knowingly.”

It is clear that what Pfc. Bradley Manning did was not with evil intent. He had been held for more than three years without trial. Now our government wants to make an example of him, showing anyone thinking of informing the public, beware Big Brother.

The Barack Obama administration pledged to be transparent. Turns out to be just like the others — cover up and keep stuff buried. The people are too ignorant to understand.

There are so many laws in our land that even the Congressional Research Service cannot name them all. If Congress ever goes back to work they should require that at least all the federal criminal laws be identified, counted and referenced somewhere, like the Internet. Access to this list should be without charge.